How to install Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 on Ubuntu
11.04
Yesterday I was at a friend of mine who has recently installed
Ubuntu 11.04 to his already oldish Desktop computer.
The system was 1.4Ghz (amd) with 512 RAM and some kind of
Dell
Trinitron 19 inch monitor
Even though he tried hard to
make his NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
's drive to work properly with Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, he just has
messed it even more.
As I always like helping people and I'm joyful for people who want
to migrate to Linux, I took some time to make his NVIDIA GeForce
work with this Ubuntu release.
First I tried to make it work by using some of the official NVIDIA
Linux drivers located on
nvidia.com following some online
tutorial for Ubuntu claiming that it works but actually it didn't,
so finally after a bit of experimentation I found a way to make
this video card work.
Here is how:
1. Install the following Ubuntu packages
root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install nouveau-firmware nvidia-173
nvidia-173-kernel-source \
nvidia-cg-toolkit nvidia-common nvidia-current nvidia-glx-173
nvidia-settings
...
2. Load in the kernel and set to be auto loaded on boot nvidia's
driver kernel module nvidia-173
root@ubuntu:~# depmod -a;
root@ubutnu:~# modprobe nvidia-173
root@ubuntu:~# echo nvidia-173 >>
/etc/modules
3. Stop temporary (Gnome dipsplay manager) gdm
root@ubuntu:~# service gdm stop
...
4. Use nvidia-xconfig to generate a working version of
/etc/X11/xorg.conf for Nvidia
root@ubuntu:~# nvidia-xconfig
..
nvidia-xconfig will generate new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
configuration corresponding to the Nvidia GeForce Fx 5500 and will
move the old xorg.conf to xorg.conf.backup.
5. Start the gdm manager to be running again
root@ubuntu:~# service gdm start
...
Now the Xserver will start in a terrible mode of 640x480, probably
because Ubuntu was unable to define correct
VerticalSync and
HorizontalSync for the 19 inch Dell Trinitron monitor or for
some other weird reason, to fix this it's quite easy though.
The fix to the
NVIDIA GeForce 5500 running in 640x480 mode
is done straigh via Gnome menus.
6. Use Gnome's System -> Preferences -> Monitors to set
raise up the Xserver resolution
Navigate to Gnome's menus:
System -> Preferences -> Monitors
Here you will have to select more appropriate resolution and a
different refresh rate, which in my case was
1024x768 and
further on to store the settings press the
Apply
button.
One oddity here was that according to the
Monitor
Preferences the refresh rate was running on
54 Hz which
I don't believe was the case as I guess it's some kind of Gnome or
Ubuntu bug. I changed the
54 Hz Refresh Rate to
50 Hz
as using the 54 Hz refresh rate as the screen had a minor
vibrations observable if one takes a thorough look on the
screen.
Setting the NVIDIA GeForce 5500 driver to work with
50 Hz
Refresh Rate in Gnome loooked like the Windows's
85 Hz
RR and looked quite nice so I left it this way.
Finally to test the newly installed driver 3D acceleration I used
glxgears.
7. Install glxgears in order to be able to test that 3D
acceleration on Nvidia works fine
root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install mesa-utils
After installing
mesa-utils which nowdays contains
glxgears executable one needs to execute the glxgears
binary.
root@ubuntu:~# glxgears
Immediately after a window containing the glxgears should popup on
the screen, like shown in below screenshot
glxgears showed 3d acceleration works fine as the performance for
3d rendering shown was quite good and therefore 3D acceleration was
running fine.
And that was it now the video works like and my friends, can enjoy
the fun to have a generally virus Free OS ;)